4 Best Restaurants in Northern Utah, Utah

This chic little Japanese spot has a modern focus, offering much more than just sushi rolls (although the phenomenal rolls alone, such as the smokin' hot machi with rosemary-smoked hamachi, fennel, Thai chili, orange slices, and citrus soy, would keep the doors open). Tona goes light on the sauce and heavy on the freshest ingredients, with an expansive menu that features artfully plated grilled mackerel with a raspberry-soy glaze, udon with chicken and tempura prawns, and flash-seared ahi with freshly cut pineapples.

Inside the colorful 1890s-era Eden General Store, a few blocks from the north shore of Pineview Reservoir, this fun Tex-Mex restaurant specializes in the kind of food that effectively sustains the area's many skiers, hikers, boaters, and other outdoorsy sorts. Think big plates of chile con queso, bacon-wrapped jalapeño poppers, shrimp fajitas, pork tamales, and slow-roasted-pork carnitas tacos.

Housed in a courtly converted Victorian home, this sophisticated restaurant features northern Italian cuisine—such as rigatoni amatriciana, sweet-potato ravioli, and thinly sliced, oven-baked steak tagliata with sun-dried tomatoes—crafted by a chef born and raised in Tuscany. Live jazz some evenings wafts through the cozy dining room and the outdoor patio nestled in a garden. Combine dinner with an opera at the nearby Eccles Theatre, and you might forget you're in rural Utah.

Just a little south of Brigham City, this down-home log-cabin-style eatery is one of the most celebrated family-owned restaurants in Utah, a favorite since the late 1940s. The Maddox family serves stick-to-your-ribs Western fare—the fried chicken, Porterhouse steaks and bison rib eyes are big enough to satisfy a ranch hand, especially if you factor in generous sides of vegetables, potatoes, and homemade soups, plus fresh-baked dinner rolls served with raspberry honey-butter. Reservations are a good idea, even on weeknights. Note that alcohol isn't served.